


A Place That We Call Home

by LindirsArchives



Series: Between Fairytales and Happy Endings [2]
Category: Halt and Catch Fire
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Best Friends, Camping, Friendship, Gen, Male Friendship, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:40:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26425798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LindirsArchives/pseuds/LindirsArchives
Summary: "Inside our hearts, inside our minds todaySo when can we go find a place that we call home?"- 'A Place That We Call Home' by PrinceWhateverer--Short. Sort of sequel to 'Solidarity (In This Together)'--Gordon and Joe go camping and contemplates the meaning of home
Series: Between Fairytales and Happy Endings [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1879582
Comments: 1
Kudos: 1





	A Place That We Call Home

**Author's Note:**

> Another HaCF fanfic? You bet your ass!  
> I turned 17 back in September 4th (happt birthday to me!) And I wrote this as a birthday fic, but I got too stressed out with life I didn't get to finish it. It's finished now but I'm still in a very difficult place and I didn't have the time, so I'm sorry if this one sucks ass more than the rest

" ** _We did our best and made our mark_**  
**_I gave my all right from the start_**  
**_So why don’t I feel welcome here?_**  
**_Should I just disappear?_** "

* * *

Home.

Something that sounded so simple yet so complicated

Home didn't feel like anywhere anymore. Where were they to go and where were they to call home? Gordon didn't know. He had once thought home was where Donna and the girls were, home was where everything familiar lay. But ever since... Everything happened, from the divorce, his condition getting worse, Mutiny- he didn't know anymore. He doubted he even had a place to call home anymore

Then, there's Joe. An appearance from him felt right. A friend that had stayed by his side and had sworn to stay through everything. So far, he had no intentions of breaking the promise. Every arguments, every problems, every fights, all that didn't matter anymore. They're both tired. Both were lost, lonely, broken people, their only hope of comfort was with each other, and that restarted their once lost friendship again. Home felt just a few steps away whenever they were with each other

All in all, everything was going great. They started going outdoors more, Gordon asking Joe to go camping more times than necessary but they didn't care, it was fun and it was peaceful, just the two of them and nature. Peace was something they craved, peace from the world, peace from whatever fucked up bullshit the gods had planned for them. Camping didn't feel like a mere vacation anymore, didn't feel like a mere escape, it felt like a routine, like something that needed to be done in order to be able to get through the rest of the week. Just both of them in the middle of the forest, enjoying the calm and each other's presence

Sometimes, however, it gets annoying

"I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying you don't know what you're doing" Joe had been pacing for a few minutes as he watched Gordon struggle clicking two flints together

"I know what I'm doing. It just takes time!"

"Gordon it's been 8 hours! It's getting dark and I'm starving!" It had indeed gone dark, even Gordon noticed it, yet the firewood before him was still not in flames yet

"So?! Go eat an energy bar or something!" Gordon grumbled. He really had no rights to complain seeing how he's the one failing at a simple campfire, but he was also tired and starving so he had every right to complain and be salty

"You insisted we didn't need to buy snacks! And besides, even if you did somehow miraculously packed snacks, it can't sustain us for 3 days!"

"Okay, first of all, it's your fault for not being the reasonable one. Second, I WILL get this fire going in a few minutes! I'm not that pathetic!"

"Well, you could've fooled me-"

"And THIRD, it's your fault for growing too big and needing about a whole winter storage worth of food for dinner!" And that caught Joe off guard as he stopped his pacing and shot a glare at his friend still struggling to make a damn campfire while making angry caveman noises

"Are you calling me fat?!"

"Nope, but you're definitely overgrown. Now shut up and let me focus so neither of us would have to die of starvation!" The exchange stopped but it didn't stop Joe from glaring and huffing as he leaned against a tree, waiting for Gordon to be done with his sad attempts while ignoring his growling stomach

After a full hour, a flicker of light appeared and the fireplace held a moderate sized flame

"Aha! See I told you I could do it!" While Gordon was busy with cheering over his hand made fire, Joe was contemplating on whether or not getting a new partner was worth it

"That's nice Gordon" The taller man walked from his spot under the tree and into their tent that, if he had to be honest, was too small for him

"Come on, big guy! You can stop complaining about being starved to death!" Somehow the 9 hours of flint smacking didn't kill Gordon's campfire spirit, but oh boy did it kill Joe's

"Not hungry anymore. I'm going to bed" Gordon sighed. Of course. He was fully aware of Joe's very short temper and it was difficult to handle sometimes, especially Joe had to go through one of his mood swings, there are still many broken objects in his house to testify for his mood swings. Sometimes he wasn't violent, sometimes he's just moody, which was honestly worse

He cleaned off the fishes from their catch, the scales and the organs were removed as only flesh and bones remained before seasoning them with salt, pepper, and lemon that he had packed. Set them on the pan that Joe had insisted on bringing cause 'just because we're going camping doesn't mean we revert back to our caveman phase'. Cooking under the stars had always been one of his favourite as the gentle noise of sizzling and fire crackling accompanied by the twinkling stars was an amazing experience. There were owls and crickets heard from afar and nearby so nature had never felt entirely alone. Peace and quiet, something he had longed deeply for and found nature to be his solace

About 15 minutes immersed in nature, he set the two fishes away from the fire and onto a pair of packed paper plates. He took a glance on his watch to see it still near midnight, which was too early for Joe to even be asleep, but he guessed he was too agitated to realize

"Knock knock" He whispered before lifting the tent flap to see Joe immersed in 'The Hobbit', a book he has read multiple times

If he was being honest, he didn't take Joe for a fantasy fan, he thought of him more as a motivational non fiction fan, but seeing him so immersed in Tolkien's works proved him wrong. 'The Hobbit' was his personal favourite, Gordon discovered. Joe had told him how much he liked the Elvenking from the book, and the character had not failed in immersing him into the throne of the wood elves. For Joe, it was easy to be lost in books. He's a visionary, a dreamer, that was obvious, and fantasy had been an escape for him. So it wasn't a surprise to Gordon that he wouldn't notice him coming in and still immersed in his own wooden throne

"Come outside, dinner's ready" He was taken away from the immersion as his attention was turned to the man beside him. He gave him a dramatic huff to which Gordon responded with an eyeroll

"Stop being such a baby! Come on, I don't want to hear you whining about being starved the next morning!" With a final annoyed grunt, he finally got up and made a move out

Under the watchful eyes of the stars they ate. It was a strange feeling for Joe, bordering between emptiness and peace, though he thought not all that's empty are automatically bad. This felt free, as if the two of them were not bound by the world, not bound by anyone nor anything.

It was something he had believed in for awhile, his mother had told him that he should reach for the stars, aim high and work his way up, the brighter the star became to him, the closer he was to his goals. He had always believed it to be true, but lately it seemed everything was wrong. Or perhaps it was his goals that were in the wrong? Or were the gods mocking him by making his star far away? No matter, it had been awhile since he saw the stars anyway

"Hey. You alright?" He was brought out of his thoughts by the concern voice of his friend.

Gordon was a constant, so close to reach out. He had thought him a replacement for the stars and it made him smile at the thought. Even with the trials and errors, betrayals and heartbreaks, Gordon stayed by his side. He saw the man brighter than some he had seen, even Cameron was gone by the moment no matter how much he tried to convince himself that she still cared for him. He thought them two stars, yet the only one that still glowed was Gordon, and with Gordon he knew he could make it

"Yeah. Just thinking" Gordon snorted, an odd noise coming from him

"We're in the open wild, Joe. No thoughts should be given. Just relax" He handed him a bottle of beer as he cracked one open himself. With that one simple reassurance, all thoughts of Cameron faded, Joe smiled at that

"You're right"

"To us against the world!" Gordon raised his bottle and with a clink, a toast was made

"Us against the world!" He cheered back. The stars as witnesses of their everlasting friendship. At some point they'd even call it a brotherhood. Through the things they had done to each other from start to then, it was such a miracle that they'd find solace in each other's company and it was even more of a surprise for most that they found themselves in each other

They found the place that they could call home, and it was within each other's company

* * *

" _ **I've never been this far from home**_  
_**But what's home when I am on my own?"**_

**\- 'A Place That We Call Home' by PrinceWhateverer**

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment~


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